According to a local official, torrential overnight rains in the South Kivu province of eastern Congo caused flooding and landslides that claimed more than 100 lives. The estimate was given by Thomas Bakenge, a regional government official, after he oversaw recovery efforts in the Kalehe region that was affected. He described the scale of destruction as “enormous, beyond words, whole houses were carried away.”
He stated that bodies were still being removed from the nearby Lake Kivu’s shores. According to Delphin Birimbi, a prominent member of the community, following the torrential downpour that started on Thursday evening, two rivers burst their banks, there were numerous landslides, and numerous homes were destroyed.
Some locals estimated that more than 75% of the homes in the village of Nyamukubi, along with school structures and a health centre, had been swept away by the floods as bodies were being extracted from the mud.
